Côte Sainte-Epine by Mikael Desestret St. Joseph Syrah

Glorious nose. Gorgeous spice and depth. Olives, smoke, lavender, flowers, incense, game, tree bark, citrus rind. Wow. Hint of sweet wood. Palate is full of fruit, that is blackberry, black cherry and has insane granitic freshness. Sappy and pure with an airy silken texture. Medium bodied and so seamless. Ripe and dense but pure silk. Substantial tannins, but velvety and silky all the way. Just a brilliant wine and has opened up so much since last time.

Gorgeous and deep nose. Cassis, some wood, sappy red berries, smoke, mineral, granite. Needs an hour I’d say. Will track.

Palate is so so 16. Clean, fresh, refined and ripe. Loads of red berry fruit, so juicy, concentrated and pure. Lovely dusty tannins. Very elegant. Long and terrific freshness. Still young and this note is only from 10 minutes open but beautiful wine. Terrific structure as is airs out.

Beautiful inky dark Syrah. Ready to go after a couple hour decant. And a nice pairing with roast chicken thighs with lemon and green olives. Quite seamless on the palate with a bit of structure. Maybe one smidge less acid than I hoped for at the end to make it sing - but still very nice.